Little victories....

firstly, here's the photo of the crop rotation yellow - taken from similar angle to the blog header:

and here's another shot from the other side of the junction looking more towards the left....

I've really grown to like the in-your-face'ness' of this colour intrusion in the spring, and look out for which fields are going to be colour blocked each year...

My next photo shoot will need to be the guttering - I got it done on Thursday, with a couple of trips to Wantage Builders Merchants - plumbers counter.  I've learned over the years that if you want to replace a faulty/broken whatever, then it's usually a good idea to take the item with you.  Be it oven lightbulb, or in this case guttering brackets (I got 5 - to have a couple spare, just in case), and a second trip about 2 hrs later, for a guttering cornerpiece.  The cornerpiece was actually intact, it was the tightening bracket which had snapped with the brittleness of age and the unexpected tampering I was inflicting on it.

Anyhoo, the guttering works just fine now, the gradient's falling the correct way, and the waterbutt is already nearly full with the day of rain we had yesterday.  Little victories indeed....

On Friday we had a letter from Thames Water .... essentially telling us that under their 'Customer Guarantee Scheme' we were entitled to compensation for the flooding we experienced at our premises, and they have credited our account to the tune of 50% of the bill for the year.  Filling in that form was worth it after all.  <Grin!>

Although the victory is minor, it felt good.  I'm curious to see what happens next.  They didn't state in the letter what the compensation related to.  I've actually sent in two forms - for the two incidents - being 6 days of flooding in January, and 11 days of flooding in February.  So I'm watching the post box to see if another letter arrives with more good news!

Off to Faringdon tomorrow for Tom to attend the District Scouts St George's Day Parade - hope the weather stays fine.  If it does I'll be wanting to be getting on with painting the playhouse, but as with everything it can wait.  And if it rains, then there's always the ironing to come home to.

Tom's mouse has turned out to be a bit of an acrobat.  He stands on his exercise wheel, stretches up, and catches hold of the roof bars of his cage/home.  He then starts scurrying along the bars upside down.  He can do this for 10-15 minutes.  We've timed him.  

He's actually not quite as round as that - it's just really difficult to get a good shot of an agile mouse in full scurry.

Nighty night y'all.

Kat

This year's crop rotation....

... will be mostly yellow.

The fields are yellow.  They never used to be this colour here in 'England's green and pleasant land', but every year, around here, the landscape changes slightly by crop rotation, and the yellow fields appear, disappear, and reappear with a noticable regularity.

I'm going to head off tomorrow to the spot I took the photo of the blog header - it's field pattern looks like a negative by comparison.

The first time I came into contact with the OilSeed Rape was on a cycling break about 20 years ago.  A group of us had decided to cycle part of the Ridgeway (funny how it turns out that we now live about 2 miles away from it) over a long weekend.  I'd never seen it before, but my nose and eyes let me know something was around the corner long before I spotted it.  My hayfever well and truly triggered and the smell is quite distinct, brassicas come to mind, and pepper too.

Back then I was affronted at this incomer, this change to our 'natural' landscape, our English heritage, but now, I'm cheered up by the sheer vibrancy it brings.  Even on dismal cloudy days the yellow screams at you - 'I'M HERE!' and, by implication, so is summer.... even though the weather belies it.

So, to the weather. Since our Easter break, which by usual standards, was lovely, the weather's taken a turn for the wet.  We had the wettest winter on record, and then, by comparison, a relatively dry spell - no rain for 6 weeks or so.  The ground had begun to crack in the hen enclosure and on the dog walk at the top of the park... but since Good Friday there's been rain enough to put things right.

We've not had too much rain yet, but tomorrow (I don't usually work on Thursday) is forecast dry, and I've guttering to put right before the next wet spell comes in again.

So I'm turning in early.  Busy day tomorrow, and who knows, it may all turn out all right.

Nighty night.

Kat.

Bits 'n' bobs

Sometimes blogging feels like an unravelling knot instead of a tieing up of loose ends.  There are things I want to say, but somewhere in the telling the thread is, if not exactly lost, then put aside for a while and not always returned to, and it strikes me that this is what can happen to us in life - we take our eye off the ball, and in the blink of that eye we miss the goal.

I don't think this is a bad thing.  Missing the goal.  There seems so much pressure to achieve goals throughout life - and we're not all footballers are we?  Children/students have exams to pass, the goal is the passing, the certificate, the piece of paper, the grade, the judgement, the pressure.

We seem to have lost the pleasure in learning along the way.  The living, the breathing and understanding.  The sharing, participating and pleasure.  It occurs to me that it's a short step from pressure to pleasure or vice versa.

So yesterday, recovering from my lurgy, we paid a quick visit to the National Trust property at Nuffield Place - the home of Lord and Lady Nuffield.  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/nuffield-place/

This was a place I will go back to.  As the weather was inclement we didn't stay long, the house was crowded but the gardens looked inviting and inspiring.  However I do take pleasure in learning about the past on these visits.  I also hope the experience of visiting the National Trust properties we take them to comes to mean something to our children - not in a pressured way, but if only for the memories they will look back on as they grow older.

So in a theme of 'bits 'n' bobs' I'll tie up the ends with the promised further photos from Cornwall, and I found that book I mentioned last time on Amazon...

Attitude: your most priceless possession

The Lost Gardens of Heligan:  http://www.heligan.com/
had changed since we were last there - understandably, it's been 12 years and things move on.  Some of it was remarkable....

Magnolia

Tree fern fronds unfurling- even writing that gives me pleasure!

Dexter calf and Mum

Giant

Mud maiden

The morning at Heligan was overcast and cool, but the afternoon brightened up and we fit a quick trip to the beach in on the way back to The College...

One of these days I'm going to write my blog with time to spare, with no pressure to get to bed, so I can fiddle with the settings and become an expert in layout...  Obviously these two photos would be better side by side, but this is the best I can do.

So, you know what's next. night night.  Back work tomorrow, yeah! (no, really, I work in a Library - I LOVE my job).
:)
Kat